November 20th. a US federal court announced the postponement of the execution of a female prisoner because her lawyer was diagnosed with it and could not submit an application for forgiveness.
According to the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss signed the order prohibiting the federal government from executing Lisa Montgomery before the end of this year, so that her lawyers Amy Havel and Kelly Henry There is time to submit a petition of forgiveness to the President.
However, he ordered Javier and Henry to state whether they can complete the petition before December 24.
Javier and Henry said in a lawsuit filed on the 19th that because US Attorney General Barr arranged for the execution of Montgomery during the pandemic, they were forced to travel and contracted Coronavirus.
They went to Texas twice in October and again in early November, and then they tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The two lawyers stated in court documents: “Every time you go back and forth you need to take two planes, transfer at two airports, check in to a hotel, and communicate with dozens of people including airline flight attendants, car rental company employees, passengers and prison guards.
“The lawsuit filed by the International Human Rights Policy Advocacy Clinic of Cornell Law School said: “They were infected because the defendant Barr recklessly arranged Montgomery’s death sentence during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The US Department of Justice stated that Javier and Henry should have prepared the application documents long ago and believed that a third lawyer could take over the Montgomery case.
Montgomery strangled a woman who was eight months pregnant in Missouri in 2007 and took out the child by Caesarean section, causing the woman to die.
In 2007, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri found that Montgomery was guilty of federal abduction and death, and unanimously recommended that the death penalty be imposed by the court.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced in October that Montgomery would be executed by lethal injection in Indiana on December 8. This will be the first execution of a woman by the federal government in nearly 70 years.
Montgomery’s lawyer said that she suffered from a mental disorder that caused her to be out of touch with reality.
The court documents stated that her mental health problems became worse during the pandemic because she was unable to obtain mental health care.
In addition, more than 1,000 supporters recently signed a petition stating that the death penalty was an inappropriate punishment for Montgomery because she suffered from mental illness and was sexually traded in her childhood.
